United States Environmental Protection Agency
Solid Waste and Emergency Response
Office of Solid Waste, OSW (renamed Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, ORCR, on January 18, 2009) (5305W)
EPA530-F-00-022
June 2000
Environmental Fact Sheet: Request for Comments: EPA
Announces In-Depth Review of the Land Disposal Restrictions
(LDR) Program
To further ensure that human health and the environment are
protected from the threats posed by the land disposal of
hazardous wastes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is announcing an in-depth review of key issues for the
Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) Program. This advance
notice presents for public comment a series of technical and
policy issues regarding hazardous waste treatment and
potential avenues by which the LDR program might be revised.
Background
Congress created EPA's Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR)
program in 1984. Before the first LDR rule in 1986,
hazardous wastes were simply disposed in surface
impoundments or landfills without destroying or immobilizing
toxic constituents in the waste. Now that the LDR treatment
standards are in place, this has changed substantially. If
the wastes when first generated do not already meet the LDR
treatment standards, the wastes must be treated to remove,
destroy, or immobilize hazardous constituents before they
are placed on the land. The LDR program therefore not only
reduces the potential for harm to humans and the
environment, but it also provides a cost- based incentive to
reduce generation of hazardous wastes in the first place.
In the end, the LDR treatment standards minimize both the
short-term and long-term threats to human health and the
environment.
With completion of the LDR Phase IV final rule in May 1998,
EPA has established treatment standards for all currently
listed and characteristic hazardous wastes. EPA now has the
opportunity to embark on a reinvention project to assess how
well the LDR program is working, and to examine closely a
number of important issues. With our reinvention project,
EPA hopes to make the LDR program more cost-effective,
flexible, and innovative while continuing to be protective
of human health and the environment.
The LDR reinvention effort complements the overall EPA
reinvention initiative that began in 1995 when President
Clinton, Vice President Gore, and EPA Administrator Carol
Browner announced an agenda to make environmental and public
health protection programs more efficient and effective.
Since then, EPA has pursued common sense reforms and new
ideas that have resulted in cleaner air and water and better
waste management. This notice is intended to continue the
steady progress of the Agency's reinvention efforts by
exploring specific issues in the LDR program that may need
to be revised.
In developing this notice, EPA met with affected
stakeholders to elicit their feedback on a wide range of
issues facing the LDR program. These stakeholders included
hazardous waste generators and treaters, environmental
groups, and states.
Action
The LDR Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM),
published on June 19, 2000 (65 Federal Register 37932),
announces EPA's in-depth review of the LDR program. The
issues we describe in the notice could result in changes to
the LDR program that would better ensure that the LDR
program is environmentally protective, cost-effective,
flexible, and innovative.
In this ANPRM, EPA seeks comment on a number of important
technical and policy issues regarding hazardous waste
treatment that have arisen in recent years. The main issues
are briefly discussed in the following bullets.
- EPA wants to investigate how the LDR program can
encourage more source reduction and environmentally sound
recycling of hazardous wastes, which are preferred
alternatives to treatment and disposal of the wastes.
- Through a project known as LDR Innovative Technology
Evaluation, or LDRite, EPA hopes to help technology
developers understand how their treatment systems could
fit into the LDR waste treatment program. We also hope
to identify the most promising avenue for evaluating
innovative waste treatment technologies -- either
formally or informally -- that could help to further
minimize threats to human health and the environment.
Ultimately, we hope that LDRite will encourage the
development of innovative waste treatment technologies
that will offer us feasible and more advanced regulatory
alternatives to the technologies currently used to
establish LDR treatment standards.
- EPA is asking for comment on whether we should create an
incinerator ash waste code, which would reduce the
paperwork associated with the carry through of multiple
waste codes.
- To ensure that the LDR treatment standards are flexible,
especially for mixed wastes (i.e., wastes that are both
hazardous and radioactive), we are investigating whether
to establish methods of treatment rather than numerical
LDR standards for specific waste codes to avoid the
radiological risks associated with compliance monitoring.
- EPA is taking a close look at stabilization, which is a
popular option for treating metal-bearing wastes prior to
land disposal. We hope to gather additional information
on techniques currently being used to immobilize
hazardous wastes and to identify additional
cost-effective ways by which we can assure both
short-term and long-term effectiveness of immobilized
wastes.
- EPA also wants to ensure that the treatment standards we
originally set for certain hazardous waste codes continue
to be protective of human health and the environment.
The main codes we are currently investigating are the
F001-F005 listed spent solvent wastes, and the reactive
waste codes. We are asking commenters for data and other
information to support or refute revisions of the
treatment standards for these waste codes.
The ANPRM is intended to present EPA's latest data and
potential concerns for public review and comment prior to
the development of any specific regulatory amendments. EPA
emphasizes that no decisions have been made on what
regulatory changes, if any, will ultimately be proposed. We
will have a better idea of the potential changes after
reviewing the comments that we receive on the ANPRM. If
warranted, a proposed rule describing the potential changes
to the LDR program will be published in 2001.
For More Information
For
additional information or to order paper copies of any
documents, call the RCRA/Superfund Hotline at (800) 424-9346
(toll free) or (703) 412-9810 in the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area. The RCRA/Superfund Hotline operates
weekdays (except federal holidays) from 9:00am to 6:00pm.
Additional information may also be requested by writing to
the RCRA Information Center (5305W), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington,
D.C. 20460.